


Embrace

by MelyndaR



Series: Broken Together [5]
Category: Agent Carter (TV), Marvel, Marvel Cinematic Universe
Genre: Multi, Polyamory, nsfw-ish
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-08-30
Updated: 2016-08-30
Packaged: 2018-08-12 02:27:02
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,348
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/7916818
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/MelyndaR/pseuds/MelyndaR
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>“After Steve… and Daniel, I suppose, I never expected to love anyone in this way ever again. But now I’m here, and somehow I have not one but two phenomenal people to love – who also love me – and I just…” she chuckled, saying in an exasperated tone – though exasperated at what, Edwin could only guess – “I’m happy. I realized once again how happy I am here with you both, like this and I was… overwhelmed, really, and I started crying like a blithering idiot."</p>
            </blockquote>





	Embrace

“Edwin, stop!” Ana’s tone often held a startled note, but she was rarely as sharp with him as she was just then. Edwin froze, and Ana hissed, “Peggy’s crying.”

 _Oh no. Had he hurt her?_ He moved quickly up from the end of the bed, placing a hand on his girlfriend’s bare shoulder as he inquired softly, “Peggy?”

Peggy, who had already turned her face into Ana’s stomach so she wasn’t looking at either of the Jarvises, visibly curled further in on herself. Edwin shifted on the bed, allowing for the change… and in the process Ana became an unwitting barrier between him and Peggy.

_She wouldn’t purposely push him away, would she, not after everything they’d gone through to get to this point?_

The thought troubled him, even as Ana smoothed back Peggy’s hair and asked the question that bothered him even more. “Are you hurt, love?”

Peggy shook her head, still refusing to show her face. Looking equally baffled, Edwin and Ana exchanged glances over the top of her head. _Neither of them had any idea why she was crying, then._

 He squeezed Peggy’s shoulder, saying softly, “Sweetheart, if you need us to just stop—”

“She already stopped everything,” Peggy interjected, her tone almost… _sulky_ behind her tears as she lifted a hand and poked a finger accusingly into Ana’s breastbone.

Edwin took that hand firmly in his own, halfway hugging Ana in the process as he replied just as firmly, “As well she should have. You’re _crying,_ sweetheart, and we never want to hurt you.”

“I’m not hurt,” Peggy replied a little dryly, sounding like she might be coming back to herself.

Though he couldn’t see her face, the word that came to mind was, oddly enough, “childish.” _Sulking, hiding her face, poking Ana…_ Peggy was acting _childish_.

Ana, apparently, had come to something of the same conclusion, because she took Peggy’s face in both of her hands and did her best to make the brunette meet her eyes as she asked, “If you’re not hurt, then what _is_ the matter, love – and do not say ‘nothing.’”

“I’m just being an idiot is all.”

 _Alright, enough of this_. Edwin stood, rounding the foot of the bed so that he could sit behind Peggy, effectively trapping the stubborn woman between himself and Ana. “You’re no such thing.” He wrapped his arms around her, resting his head atop hers. “I _suspect_ you are embarrassed, but that doesn’t make you an idiot. Now. Why were you crying in the first place?”

Peggy lifted her head from Ana’s hands, dropping her forehead onto the redhead’s shoulder instead. Vaguely, she waved the hand that Edwin hadn’t captured, muttering nonsensically, “You’re both so lovely.”

“We try,” Ana replied, smiling slightly with amusement even as her eyebrows drew together in confusion. “But I’m afraid I’m not a mind reader; I don’t understand what you mean, love.”

Peggy huffed lightly against Ana’s shoulder, and Ana kissed her hair in apology as Peggy begrudgingly explained, “I never expected… this.”

She was trying to curl into herself again, but Edwin wasn’t willing to release her, so she ended up curling into him instead, resting her cheek against his shoulder so that she didn’t have to properly look at either of the Jarvises while she spoke.

“After Steve… and Daniel, I suppose, I never expected to love anyone in this way ever again. But now I’m here, and somehow I have not one but two phenomenal people to love – who also love me – and I just…” she chuckled, saying in an exasperated tone – though exasperated at what, Edwin could only guess – “I’m _happy_. I realized once again how happy I am here with you both, like this and I was… overwhelmed, really, and I started crying like a blithering idiot. I’m fine, really I am, just overwhelmed.” She lifted her head just enough to peer at Ana with a crooked smile, not so much that she had to leave Edwin’s embrace. “See? Overly-emotional idiocy.”

“No, not idiotic at all,” Ana disagreed softly, shaking her head before she leaned in to pepper Peggy’s face with kisses.

Ana stopped only when Peggy chuckled with a genuine smile now on her face. Edwin smiled gently at the sound, but he found himself more thoughtful than anything. He moved just enough to tilt Peggy’s chin up to his face with a finger, kissing her slowly before he admitted quietly, “I think Ana and I understand in our own ways.”

“You do?”

Ana was looking at him with calm, curious eyes, willing to let him explain whatever he was thinking, and so he did. “I remember when Ana and I were first married, on our first night stateside. We were in one of Mr. Stark’s residences. We had already had our wedding night before I was even arrested, but afterwards… when we were finally safe… a young, newly-married couple on their first night in their first real home -  you’re _supposed_ to make love then.” He scoffed fondly under his breath. “And yet all I could do was cry – with relief, perhaps, or love, but I think, for the most part, I felt disbelief at how very, incredibly blessed I was to have made it there to that moment.” Seeing how intently Peggy was staring at him as he reminisced, he kissed her again, adding warmly, “And now I am more blessed than ever before to have _you_ as well.”

Peggy smiled, but turned her head to look between her two bed partners as she said, “What I’m hearing, then, is that Ana has to deal with _two_ ridiculously emotional significant others?”

It was Ana who spoke up at that, snorting derisively before Edwin could even open his mouth. “No,” she shot back, as if the idea was ridiculous even though in Edwin’s mind, at least, it was perfectly true in some ways. “Believe me, Peggy, I was crying just as much as he was, and probably more.” She shook her head lightly, admitting, “I can’t even tell you everything that I was thinking that night, let alone feeling.

“I remember that we just laid there in the bed for a bit, looking at one another, trying to let it all soak in. Then he kissed me, pulled me to him, and… simply held me. I remember that you, Edwin, seemed as small as I was in that moment. He had hidden his face in the curve of my neck, and it took a moment for me to notice that he was crying… but when I did… I began to practically sob.

“…I was supposed to die in Budapest; _I_ was the reason we’d both nearly died trying to get out, and then when we made it back to the States, both of us, safe and whole…”

She shook her head as if to dislodge the memories that she had gone back to, and drew in a breath before meeting Peggy’s eyes to say, “If you wish to discuss overly-emotional and overwhelmed, there it is. But what I am – what I think _we_ are – trying to say, is that tears are not ‘idiotic.’ If you need to cry – for whatever reason, due to whatever emotion – then _cry_. We’re not afraid to hold you through it, my love.”

Peggy’s smile was nearly sheepish, and distracted by something that Edwin was going to ask her about at a later time, as she sidestepped the mainstay of what Ana had said to ask a little lightly, “And will there be consoling kisses afterwards?”

 _She wanted to end their conversation_ , Edwin understood instantly, and he was willing enough to oblige her, tilting his head to the side so that he could kiss her cheek in between answering, “Afterwards… before… in the middle…”

Seeing exactly where he was going with that, Ana added with a growing grin, “Kissing… touching… loving… anything you need, and _everything_ you want.”

“Is ‘all of the above’ an option?” Peggy inquired with a smile.

Edwin’s smile only grew as he shifted to deposit her on her back on the bed. “Absolutely, sweetheart."


End file.
